Recently, when a reporter made an unannounced visit to an education and training institution, the institution was conducting an enrollment briefing for a certain school from primary school to junior high school. Originally, primary schools were promoted to junior high schools based on a nearby admissions policy, but many parents were still anxious about choosing a school for their children. Recently, the Ministry of Education issued a notice to deploy a special campaign for sunshine enrollment in compulsory education. This is the first time that the Ministry of Education has made a comprehensive and systematic work plan for compulsory education enrollment across the country in the form of a special action. Why a special operation? What kind of problems are mainly targeted? What measures will be taken?
The goal of the Ministry of Education’s special campaign for sunshine enrollment in compulsory education is to comprehensively investigate outstanding issues that the people have strongly complained about and resolutely rectify phenomena such as "black-box operations" and "pinch enrollment".
Regarding the enrollment regulations for the compulsory education stage, as early as 2014, the Ministry of Education began to promote the exemption of entrance exams from primary school to junior high school. In 2019, my country began to promote the full coverage of compulsory education schools without exams and admission to nearby schools. However, there are still problems with illegal enrollment in some schools in some areas, which undermines educational fairness. Correcting "pinch" is one of the difficulties to be overcome in this special operation. The so-called "pinch the top students", also known as "spot recruitment", means that individual schools use various illegal means to identify and recruit top students before assigning them admission, so as to widen the gap in the quality of students with ordinary schools.
At present, it is in the early enrollment stage of primary school students. The reporter’s investigation found that some institutions are holding enrollment information sessions in order to cooperate with individual schools to compete for the top students. They are being carried out secretly.
The so-called "Private Five Class" refers to the selection of fifth-grade students in middle schools to advance from primary school to junior high school. The selected students will directly enter junior high school in sixth grade. The reporter's investigation found that similar selection examinations are being quietly conducted in some schools and educational institutions recently.
"Pinch" method 1: Selection exam
The day before the May Day holiday, this agency staff released information about a private school's upcoming campus open day, saying that activities for fifth and sixth grade students would be held during the holiday. held on the last day. The reporter tried to sign up and received a call from the school a few days later.
According to the agreed time, the reporter came to this school. As soon as they entered the teaching building, parents and children were separated. The child was taken into a classroom on the first floor. The stationery he was required to bring was originally used to participate in the selection examination organized by the school. Once the exam begins, parents gather together to discuss their children's learning. During the chat, the reporter learned that this school had previously conducted multiple joint examinations for the entire city with a key public middle school in another district. This examination may be the last round of this year's admissions season. At 12:30 noon on May 5, the three-hour exam ended, and parents were uniformly arranged to pick up their children on the school playground.
Various test interviews organized by the school itself or jointly with social training institutions for the purpose of selecting students are exactly the violations that this special action must resolutely correct.
At the same time, the special action also made a number of regulations on the enrollment behavior of private schools, such as whether cross-regional enrollment is in violation of regulations, whether there is mixed enrollment with public schools, etc. No matter which one, this private school is obviously violating the rules. From chats with parents, the reporter learned that in addition to participating in similar selection examinations organized by schools, another way to be "recruited" is to participate in various cup competitions. Therefore, some cup competitions that are expressly prohibited by the Ministry of Education are still It's going on secretly.
"Pinch the tip" method two: Participate in Mathematical Olympiad competitions such as the Cup
Wasa Mathematical Competition, Hope Cup, American Major League and Masters Competition, all of which have been identified as illegal competitions by the Ministry of Education. Since 2018, the Ministry of Education has continued to regulate national competitions for primary and secondary school students; in November 2022, the Ministry of Education announced the "List of National Competitions for Primary and Secondary School Students in the 2022-2025 School Year", commonly known as the "White List" , and clearly stipulates that "anything that is not included in the 'list of national competitions for primary and secondary school students' is an illegal competition, and there are no subject competitions for students in compulsory education on the list."In January this year, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security and other departments jointly issued a document stating once again that the Masters Tournament, Hope Cup, China Cup, etc. are all illegal competitions held in violation of regulations, and we must resolutely crack down on illegal illegal competitions. However, there are policies and countermeasures, and these illegal competitions and illegal competitions in subjects are subsequently carried out in the name of summer camp, winter camp or study. For example, a training institution recently launched a research summer camp called Red Spirit and a Guangdong camp activity. What they actually did was a math Olympiad competition that was renamed from the Hua Cup to Hua Shu Star.
Reporters investigated and found that due to frequent reports of illegal competitions in recent years, which resulted in temporary cancellation of exams, registration can only be done through institutions. Examination methods are becoming more and more secretive, and you may even have to go out of town to participate in competitions to reduce the risk of being reported. These illegal and expensive Mathematical Olympiad competitions are highly sought after by parents, and their results have become an important basis for individual schools to "pick the best".
In addition to Mathematical Olympiad, the second thing the school focuses on is English. In March 2021, the Examination Center of the Ministry of Education announced that it would withdraw from hosting the Cambridge English Band 5 exam, which caused its popularity to decrease for a while. However, since last year, the Cambridge English exam has become popular again. Many primary school students have passed the equivalent of domestic high school to university level 3 fce exam.
reporters noticed that, including this special operation for sunshine enrollment, the Ministry of Education has emphasized many times in recent years that primary and secondary school subject competition results, grade examination certificates, etc. should not be used as enrollment reference or basis. However, in fact, this situation has not Complete twist.
Niu Nansen, associate researcher at the Institute of Basic Education, Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences: In reality, in some local schools, we found that there are still illegal "pinch admissions", such as using training certificates and subject competition results as admissions references or basis. This is also the difficulty that this special operation focuses on.
Tang Jiangpeng, deputy chairman of the Basic Education Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education: During the compulsory education stage of primary school, the "pinch" in some places has intensified competition and become an unbearable burden in the development of young people.
The third method of "picking the top": screening resumes
Parents make a resume of their children's competition results, grade examination results, etc. and submit it to the school. The school's screening of resumes becomes the third method of "picking the top" by the school in addition to selection exams and participation in cup competitions. means. Before the double reduction, most of these resumes were placed directly at the school entrance or in the security room. After the double reduction, the control was stricter and the methods became more covert. Either give the resume directly to the teacher at the campus open day like this, or send the resume to the school email. , and providing email-related information has become a new way for individual organizations to make money.
Bu Yuhua, a professor at the Institute of Basic Education Reform and Development of East China Normal University: Why should schools adopt various methods, whether parents or tutoring institutions, to recruit high-quality students? Because you care about the admission rate, the rate of famous schools, and key points If the rate is higher, then schools will care about it. Comparisons between schools are still very serious, and there are also comparisons between regions. In an interview with
, experts believe that the current assessment and evaluation orientation of many local education administrative departments towards schools is still based on scores and promotion. This is one of the important reasons for repeated enrollment chaos.
The reporter learned that some children who have been successfully "recruited" have to continue to "roll" and strive to enter the fast class in order to enter better classes. The school's establishment of fast and slow classes under various names has also been listed as one of the seven illegal enrollment behaviors that must be resolutely corrected in this special operation of sunshine enrollment.
Tang Jiangpeng, deputy chairman of the Basic Education Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education: I think that when an educational phenomenon develops to the point where it needs to be governed by special actions, special actions must be taken to curb its spread. The advantage is that it provides a good educational environment for the growth of young people, which is of great significance. But at the same time, we must truly establish a long-term mechanism so that every child can have a wonderful life and develop at different stages and at different points.
reporter learned that the Ministry of Education is currently forming a special action working group for sunshine enrollment, which will then participate in cross-provincial cross-inspection work across the country to promptly investigate and deal with violations such as "black-box operations" and "pinch enrollment" Make notifications. The General Office of the Ministry of Education recently issued a notice on the launch of the "Standardized Management Year" in basic education, which strictly prohibits schools in the compulsory education stage from organizing various examinations for the purpose of selecting students, or using various competition certificates, social training results, grade examination certificates, etc. as a basis for admissions. We hope that through rectification, admissions to compulsory education schools can be made fairer, brighter and more convenient.
editing丨Xue Chen
videography丨Pan Ming Zhang Yuhu
editing丨Zhou Wei Zheng Yu Zhao Yunlong Miao Jialiang
planning丨Yu Renshan
